Ian "Enable" Wyatt Talks Red Bull LAN

Ian “Enable” Wyatt and his teammates in Status Quo have a few Red Bull LAN events under their belts, but they’re wise enough to know that there’s still plenty to learn in the world of Halo: Reach. The latest LAN event, wrapping up today in Santa Monica, has provided a number of lessons and valuable preparation as they head into this month’s MLG tournament in Orlando.

During a short break for Status Quo while the Turning Point team was facing off with Believe the Hype on Sunday evening, we sat down with Enable to talk about the advantages that taking part in the Red Bull LAN provides for the teams involved.

Red Bull USA: What are the advantages of attending a gaming LAN?

Ian “Enable” Wyatt: There are a lot of advantages when you attend a LAN. For instance, there’s no connection lag because you’re playing on System Link, so there’s no Internet connection to mess you up. You’re also playing right next to your teammates, so we can go over an issue and everybody will be on the same page. You also get to constantly play top teams with different styles, so it helps your overall game.

Red Bull USA: What does a team like Status Quo take out of the Red Bull LAN?

Enable: We try to learn what we’re doing wrong and figure out ways to capitalize on our mistakes. Obviously, we would like to win, but if we lose we’re not upset, because we realize it isn’t a competition; it’s set up for us to get better. We want to learn from our mistakes to make sure we’re not making the same ones at an actual event.

Red Bull USA: What are the advantages of the Red Bull LAN over a traditional LAN?

Enable: If you’re at someone’s house, the set-up is messy and you might run into some problems. At the Red Bull LAN, everything is set up perfectly. You have a time schedule so you’re getting the most games you can get in and you’re getting the most out of them. Not only that, but I feel like you have fun; Red Bull does a lot of great things for us. Obviously, they’re supporting us and allowing us to play here, but they’re also doing things outside of the games to help us relax and chill; it’s just better across the board.

Red Bull USA: What’s the best part about the Red Bull LAN?

Enable: That’s tough. Definitely playing against the top players, and with this one, since there are StarCraft players, getting to meet other professional gamers, and just getting to relax with everyone we know from online. The whole LAN has been great; there hasn’t been one thing I didn’t like. The food was great, the people, all the production, everything.

Red Bull USA: Have you been able to learn from any of the biofeedback provided here?

Enable: I’m pretty sure the majority of the players have been taking advantage of it all three days. I didn’t feel like I played very well on day one, and they let me know that I was a little dehydrated and that my glucose was low. On the second day, I made sure I kept drinking water and kept eating snacks or whatever, and I felt like I played a lot better.

When I went in to get my post-game test results, they let me know that I was perfect on my hydration level and my glucose was in a good range. Now I know how much I should be eating and drinking while playing. I never would have figured that out at someone’s house. If I did, it probably would have been a little awkward… (laughs)

Kevin McAvoy/Red Bull Media House North America, Inc.

Red Bull USA: Will Status Quo take a break to wind down from this event?

Enable: When you come to these LANs you’re playing game after game; you get breaks to relax and they have massage therapists which is great, but at the end of the day, your brain is just drained. After this, we’ll most likely take a day or two off, but we’ve got a tournament two weeks from now. We want to put as much time in as we can to prepare, but you do need to relax after long gaming sessions like this.

Red Bull USA: Will you be able to get together again before the tournament?

Enable: We probably won’t get together before the tournament. Ace attends University of Kentucky, I live in Delaware, Flamesword’s in New Jersey and Assault is in Connecticut, so we’ll be focusing on playing online until we get to the event.

Red Bull USA: Does participating in the Red Bull LAN give you an advantage over other teams?

Enable: Definitely. I feel like us, Turning Point and Believe the Hype have a huge advantage now, coming out of the Red Bull LAN. I don’t think any top teams have done a LAN for this event, so I’m glad Red Bull has supported us and provided us with this awesome place to play, because otherwise, we’d probably be making the same mistakes at the actual event that we’re making here.

Red Bull USA: It’s amazing that after playing so long you’re still susceptible to making new mistakes…

Enable: Halo is extremely complex; the casual player may not think so because it’s a shooter [game] and you think, “I just have to kill that other guy.” But there are a million different situations you can be in at any time, so even though the top professionals know the ins and outs of every map, every situation is different. You can’t be right 100% of the time. I like that that’s how the game is played, because you constantly learn new things you didn’t know before. You learn something new in every game.